What does government spending mean to you?

I was listening to this NPR-On Point podcast this morning. Krugman is a good speaker and very capable of clearly expressing his thoughts to an audience. I noticed something interesting in their discussion, when it comes to government spending, why does it seem that conservatives only balk at spending that helps the poor? Why don’t Republicans consider $700 billion for defense budget, government spending? Do they think that by allowing the gov’t to spend our money on death and destruction, oh wait, sorry I mean “National Defense”, that they are at the same time putting “Country First” while “Supporting Our Troops” as well? I believe the best way to support our troops is by elimination of a high probability of death/disfigurement, but that’s me. Why is this part of the budget left unscrutinized by our leaders? They talk about how the Dems are “socialists” and even the word “commie” gets thrown around from time to time. Obama got attacked for saying something along the lines of it being high time for a redistribution of wealth from the top 1/3 to the middle-bottom 1/3. You know, military spending is a redistribution from the middle-bottom 1/3 (majority of taxpayers) to the top 1/3 (majority of defense spending contractors) and it shouldn’t be given this free pass from the federal red pen…

UPDATE: Oh and here is a story about the kind of services you get for all those tax dollars.